A novel method of finding the height of an absolutely positioned element. From: http://stackoverflow.com/a/20791125

absolute-element-height.js

function absElemHeight(element){
  var max_y = 0;
  $.each( $(element).find('*'), function(idx, desc){
    max_y = Math.max(max_y, $(desc).offset().top + $(desc).height());
  });
  return max_y - $(element).offset().top; 
}


function absElemHeight(element){
  $element = $(element);
  if($element.find('.inner').length === 0) {
    $element.wrapInner('<div class="inner"></div>');
  }
  return $element.find('.inner')[0].scrollHeight;
}